Human rights groups in Lithuania have signed an open letter, asking the parliament not to pass proposed laws that would severely limit migrant rights in the country.
"In principle, [the new laws] would legalise breaches of human rights and would put vulnerable people [...] in an unsafe position,” the Lithuanian Red Cross said in the joint statement, which was also signed by the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Lietuvos Žmogaus Teisių Centras (Lithuania’s Human Rights Centre) and the Diversity Development Group.
On Tuesday, the parliament is holding an extraordinary session to consider the new legislation, which the government has asked to debate and adopt under a fast-track procedure.
The proposed amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens would cut the processing time of asylum applications to ten days. It would also restrict the free movement of migrants and restrict some other rights.
According to the Red Cross, the new laws would breach EU and human rights and would “de facto detain people for an undetermined time period without a court decision” and may limit access to the detention centres for NGOs. It would also mean that unaccompanied migrants, pregnant women, and children would also be held in such conditions.
The laws would also limit “the right to information, [...] the services of translators, social workers, and other specialisations, [...] and the right to turn for legal help to the United Nations or NGOs working in the fields of human rights and refugee laws”.
“We understand that the extraordinary situation requires special means and we are happy to help the state with the means [...] that are humane,” said Kristina Meidė, head of the Lithuanian Red Cross.
Lithuania has seen an influx of migration from the Middle East and Africa via Belarus, which officials say is being facilitated by the Minsk regime. Some 1,600 people have been detained after entering Lithuania irregularly over the past several months. In comparison, 81 people were detained in the whole year of 2020, 46 in 2019, and 104 in 2018.
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